Two ways to say or-: Sinhala Grammar #48

 Ayubowan!

Today I will be going over three ways to express or. Let’s dive right in!

Let’s say that you are at the store, and the merchant asks you which kind of apple you want.

You may hear:

Do you want the red (colored) apples or the green (colored) ones?

Oyaa rathu paatha apple gediya one da kola paatha da?

ඔයා රතු පාට ඇපල් ගෙඩිය ඕනේ ද කොළ  පාට ද?

The basic structure of this is:

Item A or Item B

Item A da/ද  Item B da/ද?

Although this is one way of expressing this idea is, you can also use this way:

I can get a red apple. If not, I can get you a green one.

Rathu paata appel gediya  ganna puluwan nætham kola paata eka ganna puluwan.

රතු පාට අප්පෙල් ගෙඩිය ගන්න පුළුවන් නැතං කොළ පාට එක ගන්න පුළුවන්. 

The thing to note here is that, unlike in the English translation. This whole example is

one sentence instead of two ideas.

Let’s look at a few more examples of expressing this “or” concept:

What do you want to drink? Milk or water?

Oya monada bonna one da? Wathura da kiri da?

ඔයා මොනාද බොන්න ඕනේ? කිරි ද වතුර ද?

You can eat rice. If not, make an egg.

Bath kanna puluwan nætham bithara hadhanda.

බත් කන්න පුළුවන් නැතං බිතර හද්හන්න.

That's all for this lesson! If you have any questions or feedback, please leave comments 

down below! The next lesson will be uploaded on May 10th. 

Thank you for reading!

Telling the Time: Sinhala Grammar #47

 Ayubowan!

Today I’ll be writing about telling time in Sinhala. 

I would highly recommend this article, as it really helped me in learning these concepts!

https://www.lazybutsmartsinhala.com/4-simple-steps-to-tell-the-time-in-sinhala/

Let’s get started with reviewing some numbers

In Sri Lanka, the 12-hour clock is used. Here are numbers 1-12 from the posts on

numbers in Sinhala. Check this out if you would like to review the other numbers: https://learnsinhalawithme.blogspot.com/2020/05/numbers-in-sinhala-part-1.html

1	එක	eka
2	දෙක	deka
3	තුන	thuna
4	හතර	hathara
5	පහ	paha
6	හය	haya
7	හත	hatha
8	අට	ata
9	නමය/නවය	namaya/navaya
10	දහය	dahaya
11	එකොළහ	ekolaha
12	දdoළහ	dolaha

So for the hour, you may use the numbers 1-12. The only thing to note is that you must add the

suffix -yi to every number representing the hour. 

Example; Deka (දෙක) turns to Dekayi ( දෙකයි)

As for the minutes, there are some differences in regards to the formality of your speech. In both

formal and casual Sinhala, the minutes are the same as the numbers we discussed previously.

However, when speaking casually, there are different ways of expressing 15 and 30 minutes.

Let’s say you want to say 2:15

You could say:

Dekayi pahalovayi   or   Dekayi kaalayi (Casual)

දෙකයි පහළොවයි                 දෙකයි කාලයි   

If you want to say 2:30

You could say:

Dekayi thihayi       or       Deka* hamarayi (Casually)

දෙකයි තිහයි                         දෙක හමරයි

* When paired with Hamarayi, Deka is used instead of Dekayi

(I’m not really sure why this is the case)

Another detail to note is in terms of telling the time of day along with the time on the clock.

All you need to do is attach the word for the time of day in front of the time itself:

Morning	udeyi /උදෙයි
Afternoon	dhaval/ධවල්
Evening	havasa/හවස
Night	rǣ/රෑ

8:15 in the morning

Udeyi atayi pahalovayi

උදෙයි අටයි පහළොවයි 

Practice:

In a scenario where someone asks you the time, it might unfold like this:

What time is it?

Velavaa kiyada?

වේලාව කීයද?

 

It is four twenty-seven now.

Dæn hatarayi visi hatayi.

දැන් හතyiර විසි හතයි.   

Here’s another example in which you might express the time:

I go to sleep at 10:15 pm everyday.

Mama hæmadaama dahayayi pahalovata nindata yanavaa.

මම හැමදාම දහය පහyiළොවට නින්දට යනවා.

That is all for this lesson! If you have any questions, comments, or corrections,

please let me know. The next lesson will be posted on April 19th at 12 a.m PST. 

Thank you for reading!